552 THE DEVONIAN PERIOD. 



Sphenopteris Hitchcockiana^ Dawson. Doubtful fragments only 

 occur. 



Sphenopteris pilosa, sp. nov. (Fig. 192 F). BIpinnate or triplnnate, 

 pinnae oblong, with crowded, obovate, decurrent, pinnules, with a few 

 forking veins. Terminal leaflet, broad, obtuse, surface thickly covered 

 with minute hairs, which generally mask the venation. I refer this 

 curious fern to Sphenopteris with much hesitation, but I think its 

 venation places it there in the present state of our classification, 

 though in general aspect it rather resembles a Neuropteris or Cyclop- 

 teris. It has some points of resemblance to the Carboniferous fern 

 Sphenopteris decipiens. 



Hymenophyllites curtilobus, Dawson (Fig. 192, G). Bipinnate. 

 Rachis slender, dichotomous, with divisions margined. Leaflets 

 deeply cut into subequal obtuse lobes, each one-nerved, and about 

 one-twentieth of an inch wide in ordinary specimens. According to 

 Lesquereux, the genus Hymenophyllites is characteristic in America 

 of the Upper Devonian. In Europe it is represented also in the 

 Lower Coal. I have seen only one or two species in the Carboni- 

 ferous rocks of Nova Scotia or New Brunswick. The present species 

 resembles a gigantic variety of H. obtiisilobus, Goeppert {Sphenopteris 

 trichomanoides, Brongn.). 



Hymenop)hyllites oitusilobiis, Goeppert. Found with the preceding. 

 Hymenophyllites Gcrsdurffii, Goeppert (Fig. 192, li). Found with 

 the preceding. 



Hymenophyllites suhfurcatus^ sp. nov (Fig. 192, N). This species 

 is among Mr Hartt's recent collections. It is of the type of H. 

 furcatus, which, according to Lesquereux, is found in the Devonian 

 of Pennsylvania, but it differs in its broader and acute divisions. 



Alethopteris discrepans, Dawson (Fig. 192, I), Bipinnate. 

 Pinnules rather loosely placed on the secondary rachis, but con- 

 nected by their decurrent lower sides, which form a sort of margin 

 to the rachis. Midrib of each pinnule springing from its upper 

 margin and proceeding obliquely to the middle. Nerves very fine 

 and once-forked. Terminal leaflet broad. This fern so closely 

 resembles Pecopteris Serlii and P. lonchitica that I should have been 

 disposed to refer it to one or other of these species but for the char- 

 acters above stated, which appear to be constant. P. Serlii is abundant 

 in the Lower Carboniferous of Northern New Brunswick, and P. lon- 

 chitica is the most common fern throughout the whole thickness of 

 the Joggins Coal measures; but in neither locality does the form 

 found at St John occur. On this account I think it probable that 

 the latter is really distinct. In Murchison's " Siluria," 2d edition, p. 



